CPU Overclocking For Dummies (aka me)

[Viper007Bond]

So, uh, yeah, now that I have a badass PC, I'd like to get a little more out of it.

Overclocking my video card is easy as that can be done via a simple slider in Windows. I've done it many times on my old video cards no problem.

However, I've never done a proper CPU overclock before. I OC'ed my old CPU via the dummy method (a +10% option in my old BIOS), but that I think it gave my a crappy FSB speed or something (I have no clue).

Simply put, what do I need to set my stuff to in my BIOS to get a decent OC now?

I have a E6750 on a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P.

[Viper007Bond]

On suggestions from IRC, I tried a FSB of 380. It wouldn't POST and auto-reset to default.

It boots at 375 (3GHz) and ORTHOS (CPU whore program) has been running fine for almost 10 minutes, but it's completely fucked my memory timings (5-6-6-17).

I think I'm going to go back to stock speeds, force my RAM to 4-4-4-15 (it's normal claimed speed) rather than the 5-5-5-15 it's been at, and just stick to overclocking my video card.

[the Interceptor]

Generally, you need to ask the question if overclocking your CPU makes sense at all, regarding what components you have and what you do with your machine. If you play games quite a lot, and you have a top-notch graphics card, overclocking your CPU might make sense as it increases overall speed. If you have a slower (older) card, overclocking the CPU will most likely not be useful, as the graphics card is the limiting factor, and increasing speed elsewhere will give you no advantage.

Therefore, please post some stats of your pc and give some hints of what you intend to do with it.

[Viper007Bond]

Fuck, it won't even start up properly at 4-4-4-15 with stock CPU settings. What's going on?!

Originally Posted by the Interceptor

Generally, you need to ask the question if overclocking your CPU makes sense at all, regarding what components you have and what you do with your machine. If you play games quite a lot, and you have a top-notch graphics card, overclocking your CPU might make sense as it increases overall speed. If you have a slower (older) card, overclocking the CPU will most likely not be useful, as the graphics card is the limiting factor, and increasing speed elsewhere will give you no advantage.

Therefore, please post some stats of your pc and give some hints of what you intend to do with it.

It's a week old PC.

(See my long ass build thread)

Cliffnotes:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
• Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P Mobo
• 2GB OCZ PC2 6400 DDR2 RAM
• XFX 512MB 8800 GT

What I want:

• Good stability first and foremost, so nothing extreme, but I still think I can push my CPU a little without going crazy (right?)
• Better FPS in games (Crysis, etc.)
• Quicker CPU tasks like Maya rendering or video re-encodes

[matt2000]

I overclocked my CPU by just increasing the FSB by 10, testing it, increasing by 10 etc. I found that i could increase it by around 35 before it would refuse to POST. my board is designed for gaming and overclocking so it was quite easy

I also bought an ASUS Silent Knight II so i could overclock safely

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by matt2000

I overclocked my CPU by just increasing the FSB by 10, testing it, increasing by 10 etc. I found that i could increase it by around 35 before it would refuse to POST. my board is designed for gaming and overclocking so it was quite easy

I've seen people with the E6600 or whatever getting to 3.0 GHz, so I figured I could easily get there, if not way higher. However, I can just barely get to 3.0.

Originally Posted by matt2000

I also bought an ASUS Silent Knight II so i could overclock safely

Yeah, I bought a bigass HSF as well for use with overclocking and quietness.

[chaos386]

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

On suggestions from IRC, I tried a FSB of 380. It wouldn't POST and auto-reset to default.

It boots at 375 (3GHz) and ORTHOS (CPU whore program) has been running fine for almost 10 minutes, but it's completely fucked my memory timings (5-6-6-17).

I think I'm going to go back to stock speeds, force my RAM to 4-4-4-15 (it's normal claimed speed) rather than the 5-5-5-15 it's been at, and just stick to overclocking my video card.

He meant you should be able to reach 380 MHz eventually. He wanted you to try 350 MHz first, test, up it by 10 more MHz, test again, etc. to see how high you could go and he expected you to have to stop around 380. You might want to set your RAM ratio to 1:1 (you had it at 5:6 in the pic you showed) so you aren't overclocking your RAM. Also, you'll want to stress test your CPU for more than 10 minutes at a time. I'd say let it run for at least an hour at 370 (since you said it booted at 375), and if there are no errors or lockups, let it run overnight.

[matt2000]

just in case you wanted to know how much i OC'd mine:



after problems with the CMOS over christmas i decided not to take it right back up to 2.55Ghz

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by chaos386

He meant you should be able to reach 380 MHz eventually. He wanted you to try 350 MHz first, test, up it by 10 more MHz, test again, etc. to see how high you could go and he expected you to have to stop around 380. You might want to set your RAM ratio to 1:1 (you had it at 5:6 in the pic you showed) so you aren't overclocking your RAM. Also, you'll want to stress test your CPU for more than 10 minutes at a time. I'd say let it run for at least an hour at 370 (since you said it booted at 375), and if there are no errors or lockups, let it run overnight.

Oh, lol. I couldn't check my log and I've seen so many people with way over 3.0, so I figured he meant start there.

And yeah, if I was really wanting to see if it was stable, I'd of course run it like 10 hours.

[BlitzR]

Here's one guide that might help: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/24...ds-duals-guide

[Lilleput]

So 4200 dosent run at 4200?... Weak.

[the Interceptor]

You shouldn't have posted that picture!

Anyways, you can of course increase performance here and there. For FPS games, having a fast graphics card is the way to go, so overclocking you 8800 GT will give you the best result here. The CPU is quite quick already, so overclocking it won't help you with 3D games.

People say the E6750 goes up to 3.2 GHz with ease (standard VCore, good air cooling). Your mainboard probably has a function to alter the FSB of the RAM and the CPU independently. If that's the case, I recommend running the RAM with the standard speed and just turning up the CPU to 3.2 GHz max. And don't forget to test stability with the appropriate tools.

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by BlitzR

Here's one guide that might help: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/24...ds-duals-guide

Thanks!

And on a random note, my video card doesn't like running at 700/2000. (I know, I know, I didn't figure it would, but I thought I'd try it just for kicks before I fine tune it)

[Kip_6666]

You have to remember there are a few parts that have certain limits, if one of these parts has reached that limit the whole system won't be stable.

-The motherboard (front side bus)
-The CPU
-The Ram

What I always do is first find out what the limits of these specific parts are first.
To do that you have to pick a part, then underclock the other two parts so you know that they don't go over their rated stock speeds.
With the CPU that is kind of difficult, because you have to raise the FSB of the mobo too. Where you might run into the mobo limit first.

To test the mobo you can lower the CPU multiplier considerably, then the ram divider, so that stays well below stock. Then see how high the fsb goes before the system becomes unstable.

For the RAM, you also lower the multiplier of the cpu, also the fsb a bit. Then use a high ram divider. Test how far that goes. Ram is quite tricky because you can keep pushing the speed by fooling around with the latencies. But that can come at a cost, where you think it's fast because you see a nice high frequency number , but it actually isn't any faster because of the higher latencies. A good tip is to do a benchmark to see if you're actually getting more performance out of your ram. And to be honest, overclocking the ram doesn't give as big real world advantages compared to the old generation cpus because the cpu - ram interfaces have gotten a lot better. Upping the voltage can also get you a bit further here. But watch out with that.

Then the CPU as last, low ram divider, highest (stock probably) cpu multiplier. And see how far that goes. Maybe upping the core voltage to raise the ceiling. Be careful with that. Keep an eye on the temps.

It's very important you are sure you've found a good stable value for all of these parts. Or the next step is very tricky.

So now you know the limits of each part separately. Then it's time to put everything together.
Which is using all those values at the same time. I start off using a tad lower values than found in the first part. Because that the one part can run fast on it's own doesn't mean it's the same as two parts running that fast. Then upping everything slowly.
Play around a bit and you should be able to find a nice stable overclock now. While knowing exactly where you're reaching certain limits.

[matt2000]

Originally Posted by Lilleput

So 4200 dosent run at 4200?... Weak.

AMD naming is a bit screwed up. 4200 is the claimed equivalent intel speed - 4.2Ghz

[Lilleput]

Originally Posted by matt2000

AMD naming is a bit screwed up. 4200 is the claimed equivalent intel speed - 4.2Ghz

So a X2 4200 is twice ~ as fast as a 2.1 C2D? (If that excists)